The present invention relates to an arrangement mounted on a conductor carrier, for instance a printed circuit board, and methods of producing a conductor carrier that includes said arrangement.
So-called printed circuit boards or component carriers that can be used beneficially for implementing different circuitries are at present used in practically all modern electronic equipment. These printed circuit boards afford many advantages. Among other things, they are simple to manufacture, they can be disposed in lucid and space-saving fashion in the equipment, and can be readily replaced or exchanged. A printed circuit board comprises a carrying basic part on which a layer of non-conductive dielectric material is applied. The components with which the function of the board is achieved are interconnected by thin conductors that extend in or on the dielectric layer.
Present-day trends, for instance within mobile telephony, are directed towards the development of ever smaller system solutions and also towards higher transmission frequencies, which also place an increasingly higher demand on the design and dimensioning of printed circuit boards. In present-day technology, the signal conductors are produced with traditional microstrip techniques or some other stripline technique. However, it is more usual to use microwaveguides for the transmission of signals above 20 GHz.
One desideratum in this connection is to be able to arrange microwaveguides and devices for influencing the signals transferred by the microwaveguide on a printed circuit board in a beneficial fashion.
The present invention addresses the problem of creating a printed circuit board that includes signal conductors which can be used for the transmission of high frequency signals.
One object of the invention is to create a solid microwaveguide on a printed circuit board.
This object is achieved in accordance with the invention, by means of a microwaveguide which is either integrated entirely in the dielectric layer of said board or to at least a major part. The microwaveguide is therewith characterised in accordance with claim 1 or claim 2.
Another object of the present invention is to create a microwaveguide with the possibility of integrating different kinds of active and/or passive functions at appropriate places along the waveguide, said functions being intended to influence the signals sent in the waveguide.
This object is achieved with the arrangement according to claim 3 or claim 4.
Advantageous modifications of the invention will be apparent from the dependent claims 5-10.
A further object of the invention is to provide commercially useful methods of producing the arrangement according to claims 1-10.
This object is achieved with the methods defined in claims 11-14.
A first advantage afforded by the inventive arrangement resides in the possibility of creating a solid waveguide which can be integrated in the dielectric layer of the printed circuit board in a space-saving fashion.
Another advantage afforded by the inventive arrangement resides in the possibility of integrating signal influencing functions into the microwave guide.
A further advantage afforded by the invention resides in the ability of satisfying the requirement of low crosstalk on a printed circuit board that includes densely packed electronic devices.
Another advantage afforded by the inventive arrangement resides in the possibility of creating sequentially layered printed circuit boards.
An advantage afforded by the inventive methods resides in the simplicity in which the steps of producing the inventive arrangement can be integrated in existing manufacturing processes, and in enabling these steps to be carried out with one and the same tool.